


to catch a falling star

by sunshooter



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, set in pleiades
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 17:30:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14753228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshooter/pseuds/sunshooter
Summary: “Would you do IT?” Natsume whispers after a long pause, voice so unnaturally soft, eyes blinking in tune with the fire-lick. “If you catch a falling star, would you give your heart to it, SENPAI?”“I will,” Tsumugi replies, without losing a beat, without shaking off his smile. “If my heart can help save others and give them happiness, then I would gladly do so.”





	to catch a falling star

**Author's Note:**

> this is set in pleiades during the sleepover scene ; references to the novel howl's moving castle was made ; here's some [music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9wgYVgCREI)
> 
> [chinese translation](http://coffeeclaud.lofter.com/post/e0e0e_eeb1b777) available!~

━☆ﾟ. * ･ ｡ﾟ

 

 ****It is 3:40 am.

Natsume knows this even without looking at a clock.

A true magician doesn’t rely on man-made devices to get a good grasp of time-flow. This is one of the things his mommy had taught him. Always pay attention to the small details: the position of the stars, the shadows bending at a certain angle, the way people’s eyes would twitch when lying, how words hold so much power so be very careful on how you use it—be kind, even when you wield it as a weapon.

Natsume dreams of being a great fortune-teller like his mommy, that’s why he is working hard now.

He rouses from his sleep, the world still a dreamy-blur despite how aware he is of the time. His back aches a little. Maybe staying with his daddy at the hotel was the better choice, not for the comfort—Natsume is used to sleeping away from home—but for how much better it was to be with someone during moments like this. When he’s not quite sure if he’s moving towards the right direction; when he is standing at a crossroad, confused on what choices to make.

It’s not like—It’s not like he is lonely just like what Baru-kun had pointed out.

He yawns and turns around, only to catch sight of his Senpai still awake.

Right. He wasn’t alone. His stupid Senpai decided all on his own that he would stay here with him so he wouldn’t be _lonely_.

Before the Secret Room was his very own place for practicing magic, Natsume had used it as a resting quarter, away from everyone’s eyes and needs.

Until someone found him, carved a place in it and stayed.

Tsumugi sits at the far corner of the room, face scrunched up from squinting as he reads a book with the puny light of a gas lamp. The very gas lamp Natsume has brought here for sorcery-practice. Natsume takes a deep breath. Tomorrow—or technically, later this morning, he is going to scold this stupid Senpai for using a priceless occult object as a mere light-source for reading. For now—

He gazes at his side, at the book-bed, the makeshift bunk Tsumugi made hours ago, because obviously Natsume wouldn’t let him lie down with him. It still looks untouched.

Natsume scowls. “This is why your eyesight is deteriorating, SENPAI.”

“Natsume-kun?” Tsumugi answers, startled. His elbow hits the lamp, making it wobble. Clumsily, with an _o-oh no wah_ , he uprights it. “I’m sorry, did I wake you up? I tried to sit far from you while reading so you can sleep properly. You look like you haven’t been resting well so I didn’t want to disturb you.”

The nerve of this Senpai to worry about him when he’s the one who needs rest. Look at him almost clumsily setting the room on fire. Natsume grimaces, but he’s still too sleepy to argue. “You did wake me UP.” Not true but Natsume is not going to admit he has trouble sleeping lately. “So hurry up and sleep, ALREADY.”

“Oh, I—I’m sorry Natsume-kun! After this chapter, since I’m almost done…” Tsumugi smiles. “I will~” Just like that, his attention is back on his book.

Even against the dark, with only the faint glow of firelight casting shadows on Tsumugi’s face, Natsume knows the way Tsumugi looks midway the conversation. His eyes shut close as he gives a small and measured smile. Gentle, but doesn’t shine quite as real as the stars.

Sometimes, Natsume dislikes that smile: the way Tsumugi would smile at others to be friendly, to be useful, to make sure they are happy; the way Tsumugi would smile when he’s talking bad about himself—as if he’s nothing compared to others; the way his smiles are rarely for his own happiness and it is alright to live his life in that way.

Natsume quickly wants to be a great magician, able to cast a stronger spell on people’s hearts.

“You don’t have to read there in the corner, since I’m already AWAKE,” Natsume says, his voice losing most of its bite directed at Tsumugi.

“Is it okay to move there? Close to you?”

“Do I have to spell everything out for YOU? You’re not that dumb, are YOU?”

Tsumugi makes a noise similar to a kettle brewing or the sound dolphins make, like what Kanata-niisan showed him one time when he visited the Marine Bio Club room. Natsume finds it not as unpleasant as he first thought it was.

Slowly, Natsume watches Tsumugi silently move towards his book-bed, closer to where he is. The proximity, like the sound Tsumugi makes, is not as jarring anymore as it once was when they first met.

This close, Natsume can see the rise and fall of Tsumugi’s chest. The beat of his heart. He looks away.

Moments pass. A strange sensation of calm washes over them, until the rustling of pages, suddenly louder than his thoughts, catches Natsume’s attention. He looks up once more at where Tsumugi sits and faintly sees the novel’s cover. “You’re reading that book AGAIN?”

“Uwah, do you know this story Natsume-kun? Have you read it? Do you want to talk about it?” Tsumugi leans forward, his voice thrilled.

Natsume instantly jerks back. “What makes you think I want to talk about anything with the likes of YOU? I’ve only noticed you read that book SO MANY TIMES.”

“So you do pay attention to what I read! Just like how I pay attention to the books you want me to collect for you! That makes me happy, enough to make me cry~”

“If you only have worthless things to say, just go to SLEEP. You are a DISTURBANCE.”

“How mean, Natsume-kun~ Please be kind to me. I was just excited. You see, I love this book.” Tsumugi hugs the paperback novel, sighs dreamily and smiles.

Natsume can easily tell, even without Tsumugi saying so. The novel is creased and marked with love-lines from having been read _too_ much. The pages yellowed and folded at some parts. It’s a novel Tsumugi owns, not something borrowed from the library.

“The book is about a castle that moves,” Tsumugi continues. “A flamboyant, selfish wizard lives in it. He is rumored to eat girls’ hearts. Ah, but of course, it wasn’t true. The wizard was selfish but he is a good person, at the end of the day.”

“Tch. Of course, you, of all people, would say THAT.” Natsume rolls his eyes but he is carefully listening to Tsumugi’s words. In the dark, Tsumugi’s voice is even more gentle, delighted.

“Huh, what do you mean by that Natsume-kun?”

“NOTHING. It’s not something your brain would be able to comprehend, SeNPAI. Just CONTINUE.”

“I think you just insulted me but, alright then. There’s a girl cursed by an evil witch to be old—”

“Hm, just like Rei-niisan…”

“Yes!” Tsumugi pipes. “Perhaps? Hm, but I feel she’s more like you, Natsume-kun. Her magic is to talk things into existence! Her words are powerful! And she is prickly and not very honest with herself.”

“I am nothing like THAT. You are so bad even with storytelling. You fail at so many THINGS.”

“Eh, eh? I think I’m doing a good job. At one point, when she realizes she fell in love with the wizard she claims to hate—I mean, dislike. She doesn’t really _hate_ him, even though she’s always angry with him. She threw a weed-killer at him.” Tsumugi’s shoulders shake from laughter. “That’s a lot like you, Natsu—”

Natsume throws a pillow at Tsumugi. “D̴I̴E̴.” It hits Tsumugi’s face, skewing his glasses. He almost tumbled down his book-bed.

“See?” Tsumugi is laughing once more. He places the pillow on his lap and straightens his glasses. “You’re just like her.”

Natsume is even more awake now. Awake and annoyed. “So what happens THEN?”

“…But that would spoil you!”

“If you don’t TELL ME, I will douse your face with sulfuric ACID.”

“Why do you hate me so much, Natsume-kun?!! Please spare my face. I’m an idol, even if I’m like this,” Tsumugi exclaims, putting the pillow behind him and leaning back more comfortably against it. “In the end, the girl was able to break free from the curse on her own.”

“And the WIZARD?”

“They found out that the wizard was heartless. Literally. He made a contract with a fire demon in exchange for his heart. They broke this contract and everyone lived happily ever after in their moving castle!”

“But why did the wizard make a contract like that with the DEMON?” Natsume needles Tsumugi. A true, good magician knows that you can never wager your heart. It’s the most powerful thing, more than stars or science.

“Uh… well… The fire demon was a falling star that was about to die. But the wizard, you see, he felt bad for it and wanted to help him. He caught the falling star and made a contract with him. To help it live longer, he gave him his heart.”

“HmMMM….”

“Do you not like it, Natsume-kun?”

“You cannot just give up your heart for OTHERS.” Natsume frowns. “No matter how noble the reason is. That’s not true MAGIC.”

“The wizard did not have a choice,” Tsumugi replies. “He wanted to save the star, no matter what.”

“Then, he’s not a good WIZARD. He is lacking in SKILLS. A true magician would be able to help everyone reach a HAPPY ENDING. Even HIMSELF.”

Tsumugi smiles, small and measured. There it is, once again. “That sounds a lot like you, Natsume-kun.”

_(slowly, bit by bit. one second a time. two seconds, three. natsume is so keenly aware of it. the movement of stars. the oxidation of chemicals. nature bending to his will at the tip of his fingertips. hearts winding at the dips of his consonants and the rise of his vowels.)_

“Would you do IT?” Natsume whispers after a long pause, voice so unnaturally soft, eyes blinking in tune with the fire-lick. “If you catch a falling star, would you give your heart to it, SENPAI?”

“I will,” Tsumugi replies, without losing a beat, without shaking off his smile. “If my heart can help save others and give them happiness, then I would gladly do so.”

_(but tsumugi had always been an exception. untouched by natsume’s magic.)_

Like clockwork, Natsume throws the closest thing he can find—a book—in Tsumugi’s direction.

“Wahh, be careful, please! This book is old and irreplaceable. You can’t just throw it around,” Tsumugi says, lamely. “I just answered your question, Natsume-kun. Why are you so angry?”

It’s not right, Natsume thinks, to be worried more about the book or the star and he wants Tsumugi to really see that.

“I’d help YOU. If that happens, I would make sure you don’t have to give your HEART. Then, you and the fire demon would be indebted to me FOREVER,” Natsume says with an overwhelming conviction. His magic isn’t too strong now, but with _them_ , he’ll be able to make it happen.

Tsumugi, after a length of quiet, closes his novel. He smiles, more closely now. Slowly, bit by bit. One second at a time. Natsume can hear Tsumugi’s heartbeat. Weaving a tale so patiently with the faith he gives to others. Steady and unwavering, unlike his own.

Tsumugi’s eyes are dusted gold like the stars Natsume has memorized like fate-lines on his palms. “I don’t mind making it up to you in my entire lifetime.”

_Until death, do us PART._

_A proposal._

The words ring inside his head, climbing all the way inside his heart, turning it over again and again and again. It is moments like this that Natsume wants to capture in a flask, preserve for all time to study and replicate. But he knows, like how he knows things about time and stars and science, that this magic—this spell that clutches people’s heart without any concealed tricks—is _real_.

That’s what true magic is like. It’s not about how it was made or casted, it’s something that happens to you. It’s how you change and grow yourself into it.

This is the kind of magic he wants Switch to embody and spread to everyone else: happiness, not just momentarily, but the magic to make the world a little better, a little happier.

He hopes, one day, it will be able to reach Tsumugi, too. That one day, it will allow him to feel, not just happiness but every kind of feeling that makes a human being alive. The kind that makes their heart burst for every single second it beats.

Natsume hopes that one day, all of Tsumugi’s smile would shine as real as the stars.

“If that was US,” Natsume begins to say, his heart leaping for the future, “we wouldn’t let any of the stars FALL. Isn’t that why we burned EVERYTHING? In order to become stars that will GUIDE US.”

When Tsumugi removes his glasses, he looks the same as he did during the War. But he is different now, Natsume knows this well enough. “You’re right, Natsume-kun.” He laughs, softly. “We’ll make sure that they’ll shine for a very long time to bring everyone hope and happiness. We’ll go together, as far as we can, right? You, me and Sora-kun.”

And this is what Natsume really wants: to stay right here, to be with them for that journey. He wants the strength and power to say this out loud: _Yes._

“ḶḭḲḕ ḉṏṆṠṮḕḶḶḀṮḭṏṆṠ, ṏṳṙ ḟḀṮḕṠ Ḁṙḕ ḭṆṮḕṙẇṏṼḕṆ ṮṏḠḕṮḧḕṙ.”

Natsume knows this even without reading the future.

 

**Author's Note:**

> im still trying to get a good feel of how they are so im sry if theres anything off with this!!! >< ;; biblio also made my heart Super Soft bc I lov bookworms and with that, comes the power to make them read novels which I adore
> 
> thank u for reading!!!! ★ please talk to me in [twit](http://twitter.com/iittlewitch)


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